I have been somewhat bemused at the public hand wringing and explanicating (yes, I just made that word up for kicks) about Harvard student Chanequa Campbell. I’ve been more than BEMUSED. I think the response in the blogosphere is hysterically funny. Though not for Chanequa. Alas, I must respectfully dissent with my blogging sistren. Not because I disagree with the outcome-Black folks not offering knee jerk support, but because I find the process in reaching said result… dubious at best, sexist and rife with classicism at worst.
NOW all of a sudden there is a public discussion about who the Black community and its various tribes should rally around.
For those who don’t know, apparently someone got shot on the campus of HAAARvard University. Playing to type and in tragically stereotypical fashion, they were African American and the police are indicating that this was an attempt by one group of drug dealers to rob another drug dealer. You mean there are drugs on college campuses? Um yes. Now none of the people who are accused of murder or the victim are Harvard students, but two African American women who are students were implicated by the University and one(updated to say both), Chanequa Cambell was prevented from graduating with her class:
Chanequa Campbell is a African-American honors student at Harvard, but was not allowed to graduate with her class last week after she was forced off campus by the university. Campbell’s dismissal follows the recent campus killing of a suspected drug dealer, with whom Campbell is said to be associated. Campbell says she’s innocent and has been unfairly targeted because of her race. Reporter Ashton Lattimore explains. NPR
A flurry of articles have insued because when Ms. Chanequa complained that she was being targeted due to race, the response from the Black Harvard community was… CRICKETS. Yes, Maam, Ms. Chanequa was left OUT THERE:
Campbell was active in Harvard’s Black community. She was a member of the Black Students Association and Association of Black Harvard Women, and participated in the production of the annual fashion show put on by Harvard’s Black Community and Student Theater (BlackCAST), and the Tribute to Black Men awards dinner. However, Campbell was dogged by persistent rumors that she was involved in campus drug dealing, rumors which, in light of the murder, have done little to help her credibility with fellow students.
“People are pretty sure she did something, they just don’t know what,” said a Black classmate in Campbell’s graduating class, who requested anonymity. “We can’t rally behind somebody we don’t necessarily believe in.” News One
If you click on the NPR link, you’ll hear an interview from “Tell Me More” with Ashton Littimore, a Harvard student. I actually have to LAUGH at Ashton Lattimore’s dismissal of the role of CLASS in the lack of support for Ms. Chanequa. Come on lets have some real talk. You haven’t seen CLASS WARFARE until you’ve seen BLACK CLASS WARFARE. Now, class might not have anything to do with Ms. ‘Nequa’s current predicament, but I don’t believe for one moment that she wasn’t shunned based on her name ALONE. Cha Ne QUA. Of COURSE she was shunned and ostracized. I did my time in the east coast Black bougie-sphere. There is nothing quite like it. Nor has anyone mentioned NOTTA Once that the reason Ms ‘Nequa clung to her Brooklyn roots was because she may have felt ostracized. I have no way of knowing, I am merely engaging in the same level of speculation as all those labeling her a bad seed drug dealer.
Campbell lived in Kirkland House but has repeatedly denied providing the three suspects her electronic-access card. Campbell told the Globe in a previous interview that she was taking a final and working the day of the shooting and had her key card with her at all times.
Campbell’s attorney, Jeffrey T. Karp of Boston, said today that he is confident Campbell will not be facing criminal charges for Cosby’s death.
“She had no involvement in the murder and based on my information, she is not implicated in the murder,” Karp said. Boston Globe
This woman hasn’t been charged with ANYTHING so all this ruminating and explicating and defamation that she’s a drug dealer needs to cease. I’m not saying she is or that she isn’t what I am saying is that that’s a serious charge to slap on a 21 year old without at least a charge. And trust if folks knew she was dealing drugs, it was likely because they were BUYING the drugs. I can’t tell you who on any of the campuses I attended sold drugs because I didn’t use drugs. “Who’s the drug dealer” didn’t just pop up in casual conversation.
Let’s review shall we… OJ, R. Kelly, Michael Vick, Genarlow Wilson, That fool out in Oakland who killed four cops, the Jena 6, T.I. , T. I. T.I. T.I, Terell Owens,Mike Tyson ( who folks are all of a sudden trying to redeem), the Dumbar Village suspects. These are all men who were CHARGED with criminal acts or engaged in per se foolishness that the community, and its institutions rallied around, yet Ms. “Nequa hasn’t been charged with anything to my knowledge, and we’re celebrating because FINALLY the Black community has come to its senses regarding who it will rally around.
Y’all seriously can’t be falling for this. There is no relationship between Black mobilization and wrongdoing. I will repeat there is no relationship between Black mobilization in the modern era and wrong doing. The institutions within the Black community don’t require that the recipient of their mobilization have any moral authority. They don’t require that you are free from guilt. All that they require is a Y chromosome and potential for camera time.
I love all of you brilliant Black folks who love speaking up about Guantanamo Bay, don’t recognize that Harvard’s punishment of Campbell drags up the same exact issue. DUE PROCESS. The end result does not justify the PROCESS it took to get there. I don’t care if she was stupid. I don’t care if she chose her friends poorly or didn’t let go of the hood. She fulfilled all of the requirements to march, unless someone shows me some disciplinary action saying otherwise , then she had a right to confront the allegations against her and be heard. You only “march” once with your classmates. Although, by the time graduation number 3 rolled around, I could have cared less.
As the Boston Globe put it.
CHANEQUA CAMPBELL was barred from graduation by Harvard University. Her story was on the front page of The Boston Globe. Hearsay has it that she is somehow connected with the murder that occurred recently on the Harvard campus. She has been accused of no crime, she has not been indicted for any wrongdoing, no evidence of her involvement with the murder has been presented, there has been no trial, and there has been no conviction. Boston Globe
So no, I’m not doing a handstand that FINALLY the Black community has become more selective in who it will back. This is an aberration, not the beginning of some new trend..
Chanequa might be heck on wheels for all I know. If she had anything to do with the murders or drug dealing, throw her under the jail, but until such time as you charge her, she’s guilty of nothing. Other than being on the receiving end of some nasty rumors by her classmates. Stay classy Black Harvard, way to ruin a fellow student in the press anonymous rumor mongering .
I would welcome a return to the days when the Black community would have mobilizations based on some semblance of moral authority. This however ain’t got nothing to do with Ms ‘Nequa’s morality or ours. It has everything to do with who is “worthy” of our support. I’m not arguing that Ms ‘Nequa is worthy of support, what I am saying is Black folk at Harvard don’t deserve kudos for not supporting her.
So Chanequa, if you want Black folks to support you, here are my suggestions:
1. If you’re going to speak in complete sentences with subjects and verbs that agree, then be silent. Reporters don’t tend to crave reporting the words of articulate Black women that aren’t named Oprah.
2. You need a male spokesperson, because the only voices the Black community will typically mobilize around is a male one. It doesn’t matter if he makes any sense, has any facts to support his public protestations. Your public voice just needs to be male.
3. You’re letting your Lawya’ make public statements on your behalf. This is a mistake. If you want Black folks to mobilize around you, you need a Preach-a not a Law-ya. This preacher doesn’t have to be ordained, or even have a congregation, all he needs is the title Rev.. If you want to go for broke, find some online university that issues “honorary” de-grees and purchase him one for 19.95 so you can call him Rev. Dr. so as to distinguish himself from those not disciplined enough to earn an honorary de-gree.
4. Finally, you need to realize you’re in this one alone. You’re officially in no man’s land. I know you want to stay tied to “your roots”, but you are not Chanequa from the hood. You’re Chanequa from Harvard. You will always be Chanequa from Harvard. Embrace it or perish. Just because you still think of yourself as the girl from Brooklyn, doesn’t mean that’s how the world views you. Dust off a copy of Langston Hughes “Mother to Son” and shut down the public pity par-tay. The basis of your objection is a procedural one. Your position is that you’ve done nothing wrong and were harmed and caused great public embarrassment by Harvard without an opportunity to be heard. “They were picking on the poor Black girl from Brooklyn” only works in really bad Tyler Perry productions. You’re in the real world now its about substance, not form.
In conclusion,
I realize that despite me saying repeatedly that the real question isn’t whether Chanequa is “worthy” of support, it’s HOW we as a community of communities reach such a conclusion, many of you will feel compelled to list Chanequa’s many faults, in particular, not assimilating. Again, those faults are irrelevant if you believe in the concept of due process. I’m not saying she’s worthy of a defense “they picking on me because I’m Black” was one of the weakest arguments available to her.
In fact if I was advising her, I would have told her not to mention race at all, let the Boston Globe and the New York Times mention it for you. Act as if you were unaware that you were a poor Black girl going to Harvard, trust me, they would have woven a tale so fraught with Oliver Twist- like turns, readers would have wept in sorrow right a long with you and your 20 relatives who were coming to see you march.
In review,
T.I. an admitted and convicted drug dealer=worthy.
Chanequa-Charged with nothing, accused of nothing other than knowing all involved= Unworthy
I think were having the wrong conversation. The question isn’t why aren’t Black people supporting Chanequa Campbell, the real question is why in the HECK have certain tribes been willing to rally behind all these other fools.
78 comments ↓
Terrific post!
All that they require is a Y chromosome …..
You know it.
In fact if I was advising her, I would have told her not to mention race at all, let the Boston Globe and the New York Times mention it for you. Act as if you were unaware that you were a poor Black girl going to Harvard, trust me, they would have woven a tale so fraught with Oliver Twist- like turns, readers would have wept in sorrow right a long with you and your 20 relatives who were coming to see you march.
Exactly!! …if she mentions it, she’s uppity, and demanding . If they mention it, it becomes a cause celeb
and they are heroes for noticing. You get better press when the press can pretend they are heroes.
Media management is not about justice or logic…but you knew that.
Very good post. I must admit, I, too, failed to even give this story any consideration for the simple reason that the subject of the story was a girl (woman) named Chanequa. That name is so deeply rooted on the not- so- favorable side of Black class-ism. I am guilty and now stand corrected. Black people we must do better and be better, able to rise above stereotypical beliefs that we have embraced.
I thought some of the reasons she hasn’t gotten a movement thing yet is because the victim was black, so this is black on black crime and “activists” don’t respond and isn’t Harvard one of the places that serve chicken to the activists? They let them have their little forums where they run their mouth and make them feel like they are actually making a difference in the world.
And there is no one more loyal to the plantation than black Ivy League folks. They go around telling everyone what they need to do and need to fight, while they site in the Ivy Leagues collecting checks. The talented tenth ain’t that talented nowadays.
if she earned her credits then she earned her degree, I don’t see how Harvard can take either from her no matter what she is rumored to be involved with, and even if she was one day convicted of a crime they shouldn’t be allowed to take her education from her
activist only rally around black on black crime if the victim is female and they want to support the pervert criminal who harmed her
LOL@ the four suggestions. So true, though.
That was a brilliant post Gina. Thanks this is the first I’ve heard about this.
This makes me think of the guy Genarlow Wilson. He’s a rapist and Tom Joyner sends him to Morehouse? And the usual suspects are supporting him. Didn’t Obama even chime in saying his sentence was too long?
There are so many cases when Black men who are vile people, like Stanley ‘Tookie” Williams, are supported by the usual suspects and even the larger community and so few cases when Black women are supported.
I hope Chanequa sues Harvard for a huge chunk of their billions in endowments.
I live in Boston and the Boston Globe is the most biased piece of what passes as news these days!
No one will miss them if they go under!
Many have cancelled their subscriptions due to their biased sensationalized reporting of the black community!
Due Process!!! She definitely needs help framing the situation.
All those fools offering up innuendo to the press….
I never heard of this story, until now. Not even Rev. Al Sharpton came to the defense of the “keep it real” Brooklyn native.
Where is Bill Cosby??? Doesn’t he sport alot of Harvard T’s and sweatshirts.
Gina, thanks for bringing this up. I was curious about the deafening silence of the black blogosphere. Not a damn word on Jack and Jill Politics (and they went to Harvard) They always have something to say. That’s the talented tenth for you.
(Don’t forget Campbell wasn’t the only girl barred from commencement. The murder victim’s girlfriend (from Harlem) was also barred).
@Monica
I first heard about this story at the Black blog, Afronerd.
From the tone, it’s clear Afronerd has a “guilty until proven innocent” attitude because of Chanequa’s name:
http://afronerd.blogspot.com/2009/05/rose-by-any-other-name-would-smell-as.html
It’s should noted that BET’s racist, sexist output got worse under a Harvard grad with a “non-ghetto” name (Reggie Hudlin).
Just a reminder that you should judge people based on the internal qualities (i.e., character) instead superficial ones like name and Ivy League degree.
Thanks for this. I really couldn’t add to the pile on but clearly something went wrong. She didn’t exactly help her cause either, but of course if she’d been a Black male she would’ve had Rev. Co down there. I still don’t understand why she wasn’t allowed to attend graduation ceremonies. I didn’t want to defend any foolishness but I was highly skeptical that Blacks suddenly started having standards when it comes to criminality and knee jerk defense of perps. As for the comment made about the other blog, I’ve spoken with one of the main posters about their silence when it comes to writing posts that concern prejudiced actions against Black women and their defense and was told they’d try to do better. Of course that was a few months ago. Tell them you want their feedback. And even mentioning Hudlin’s name makes me think of the banned Boondocks episode that skewered him!!
Wow, Gina.
That was an incredible post, and I could not agree with you more. She was barred without due process. I think this is most unfair. But like you, I am struck by the fact that they can come to the aid of pedifiles (R. kelly) woman beaters (c. brown) and woman killers/rapists yet seem to find it unsavory to come to the defense of a young woman who has NOT been charged with a crime! Unbeivable…..
I think the whole student body should be rallying behind her, not for her sake, but for their own sake. College’s routinely undermine the rights of their students and use the fact that they “hold their future in their hands” to threaten students to accept the most unreasonable decisions. When your in college, you have very little recourse when you find yourself in trouble with the administration, whether it was justified or not. Sham student judicial bodies, rigid administrators, arcane rules and overall indifference are what most students face when they find themselves in trouble on a college campus. College is the only place where you can pay $1000’s of dollars to be treated like crap. It isn’t until you graduate and you are really an adult that you realize how abusive their power is! And if you are a “poor little black girl from Brooklyn”, their power is often more intimidating than you can imagine.
This woman’s story also undermines what both the administration and many black students are privately thinking: “they let you come here and you bought your riff raff”. Until black students on Ivy league campuses and other university’s are able to take ownership of the fact that they are a legitimate part of the student body and they deserve to be there, they’ll always contend with this type of second class citizenship. By all accounts, this woman was is an accomplished student. If she had a lapse in judgment, then she has clearly learned her lesson. If she had any involvement, then it’s up to the police to determine that and the college to then respond accordingly. However, her lapse in judgment shouldn’t be considered any more egregious than that of her fellow classmates because of where she comes from and the color of her skin. It should only be viewed more harshly because of the severity of what her lapse may have lead to. Classism is real in the black community and I see it played out in the black blogesphere everyday. A lot of it’s fueled by our fear of guilt by association and not taking ownership of our standing in society and right to be an individual. Also, I’m sure her name doesn’t help any and it’s a shame that we live in a world where that still matters to people.
Finally, it may be to her benefit that Rev. Al and co are not stepping up to support her. She has a future ahead of her and being immersed in this scandal will only undermine her accomplishments. She needs her name to be out of the paper and for her lawyer to handle this privately. She doesn’t need to be talking about this during her first job interviews. But it should be noted, that had she been a black boy, this would have been a bigger issue. There are many reason’s why and I believe there’s no need to delve into them all, but one main reason is that we still tie our collective self-determination to the success and failure of black men. We still see their prospering as the key to salvation. A black man being barred from marching in any graduation, let alone Harvard would be viewed as a blow to the head. People would be up in arms about how they are taking this opportunity away from one of our “good black men”. Until we start to similarly internalize the plight of black woman, we will see this repeated.
Amen and Amen!!! As I stated on another board, I’m glad there was no knee jerk reaction to support her. However, she would most certainly have gotten support if her name were Tariq or Tayshawn…sickening!!!
Amen,Amen!! Chanequa cannot march but here in Atlanta a Morehouse “man” shot another Morehouse man & he graduated!!!! The victim had to return home to California due to his injuries. He could not march but the thug who shot him (and is wealthy) marches across the Morehouse stage!! What the??? Meanwhile a black male judge here (Marvin Arrington) gives this thug a slap on the wrist & he marches!! And yes, this wealthy thug had also been charged with assaulting a former girlfriend who later refused to testify. But still he marched & Chanequa cannot march & she was convicted of nothing. This is a travesty.
Yeah,
we completely agre on tis one. When I first encountered this story on another black woman blog it was to the tone of “why is she friends with a girl who’s boyfriend is a drug dealer?”
Sigh.
As if you can control your friend’s dating habits.
And as far as her lack of assimilation – her name alone would have prevented her rom assimilating – the black upper class set isn’t exactly known for their friendliness.
Sorry for the typos, my keys are sticking
Well, Sis. Gina, in the two years I’ve been reading your blog, this is truly one of your best yet. You are definitely on point with your analysis of race, class AND gender.
Keep up the great, courageous work!
I find it ironic that the people arguing that she didnt assimilate enough arent willing to advocate that the basic tenet of American culture be enforced: the rule of the law.
I’ll be the voice of dissent here because I think it’s really important to distinguish between a true argument and a strong one.
The true statement is that Chanequa was dismissed from Harvard without due process, and was therefore indirectly linked to a crime without judicial-quality evidence. That’s true. But it’s not a good argument for the Black students to support her, unless all of Harvard supports her for the reasons Iman gave.
The strong argument acknowledges the following:
1. All institutions will act in a way that protects the interest of the institution, even that means sacrificing individual members to do so.
2. Harvard has an international reputation, and a donor-funded endowment that’s worth billions. And their legacy is mainly populated from historical owners of power : White, male, upper class (even if they didn’t start that way.) So the institution does not have a legacy of people who are historically used to distrusting the claims of authority or being unfairly targeted.
3. A person is dead. Not injured, beaten, or raped, but killed in the dorms, during a drug related crime. Which is three crimes altogether: selling drugs in the dorms, drug robbery, murder. This is a sensational incident at a place that really doesn’t want to be associated crime in general, and especially not like this.
4. All universities take judicial action that circumvents police involvement, and it often means that people who should be prosecuted, aren’t.
5. Knowledge of criminal activity on campus, especially if it leads to a bigger crime, is an excellent reason for a university to do #4, for reason #1.
Ok, so now you have a student who’s been asked to leave, and the school hasn’t said why.
Now any student, if they want to defend her, only has a few options for how they can do it: they can say she wasn’t given due process (ill-advised, because when this happens it’s often because someone didn’t get the punishment they deserved.) Or they can say that she’s innocent of all wrongdoing (strongly ill-advised, because they can’t prove that.)
But in both cases, it puts her supporters at risk: ultimately, they have to balance support of a student without knowing if they really can, and a sense of outrage at what happened to a student…who was killed while committing a crime himself. Two bad options, because anyone that publicly supports her stakes their reputations on her innocence.
And these options get worse when C. says that the reason she was targeted was because of who she was. If you take that as fact, then this reality is also extended to every Black student on that campus. So the same brush that paints a bulls-eye on her, paints one on other students in the public eye. So now the reputation risk is even higher. Remember, this is the digital age, when a cursory Google search is a common hiring prerequisite. And even without that, comments made to a reporter at age 21 can be on the national news when you’re running for Senate at 41. Or more realistically, on national news at 22 when you’re out job searching.
There’s nothing honorable about staking your future on a shaky gamble. Especially when you’ve worked as hard as these students must have done.
Unfortunately, the only way to (safely) support Chanequa/Brittany is to be in a position to completely verify their innocence: they have to be exonerated of everything surrounding this case — including the drug activity that precipitated this event.
None of these students can really expect, much less guarantee this will happen. Going back to #1 (protection of the institution): Black students, as a group, have their own institution there. The leaders of these groups have a responsibility to ensure that the reputation and power of that group isn’t compromised for themselves, and the students that will follow them.
It’s probably not the strategy that engenders good feeling, but “no comment” is a strong strategy for these groups to take and it was smart of them to take it.
It sucks, but when there’s really trouble, it’s critical to take a look at what the situation really is, not what we want it to be.
When I say that it was ill-advised to say C. wasn’t given due process, it’s on her account as well as the students. Right now Harvard hasn’t said why. But if due process reveals that she was involved in drug activity on campus, it’s not doing her any favors to have it publicly revealed.
(I know, I’m too long-winded):
the comments about the Jena 6 and the other cases, don’t really work because here, the supporters were largely anonymous. This won’t be the case at Harvard, because even the rank-and-file come from an easily identifiable and small population that’s sharing space with the victim and the accused students. Any name here will be newsworthy.
So the same fallout that people like Rev. Al get when they publicly support people who don’t really deserve it: lost credibility, ridicule, accusations of overall smarminess and other character flaws — this is the possible fallout for these Harvard students.
But unlike Rev. Al, they’re just getting started in their careers, and they go in the world without public support or the “bad press is better than none mentality.” It’s just not worth it.
Although I do agree that this would be a case for Rev. Al, but if I were a student leader, I’d tell him he might get kneecapped as soon as he stepped across the Massachusetts state line, lol.
@ JJ WHAT? This must be a sign of the apocalypse, we agree on something and you publicly admitted it.
@anna again, I didn’t say they SHOULD mobilize on her behalf, I am arguing that they shouldn’t be given KUDOS for not mobilizing on her behalf. I agree with a “wait and see” strategy, but that’s not what happened here.
Harvard students didn’t “wait and see,” they launched a VERY PUBLIC campaign to trash this woman through innuendo and and rumor. If she is a campus drug dealer, then that will come out, but if she ISN’T then a terrible injustice has been done.
My point is that the motivation for not rallying around her likely has a lot more to do with gender and class, than “strategy.”
As I’ve said before, I think questioning the man on the ground is a rookie mistake. These people at Harvard actually KNOW Chenequa, and for whatever reason they’ve chosen not to support her. Is it sexism and classism? Maybe, maybe not. I’m inclined to believe that had she been a black man they would’ve supported her as well, but, of course, we have no way of knowing that having no comparative case. For whatever reason they weren’t prepared to throw their political capital behind her. As I wasn’t there, and don’t know the young woman I have no way of judging.
I can certainly see that Harvard, a school with billions of dollars on the line wanted to make the problem go away as quickly as possible. I would be very surprised if they didn’t have some basis for their action. Maybe they’re saving it for the lawsuit.
As for the classism issue, I’m not necessarily opposed to a little classism. I think it might be a suitable antidote to the madness of ‘keeping it real,’ and ‘acking black.’ Both of which have been nothing but a vail of tears and a death knell for what was the black community. We say that we want to save the remnants of what’s left of our culture. We need to decide now if we’re willing to do what it takes to actually do that. Sure, we can send life rafts and the like, but sometimes dead weight has to be thrown overboard in a storm as well. It is to be hoped that by understanding that the cavalry isn’t coming to their rescue, people will begin to be more careful and judicious about their actions. Then again, maybe not.
Harvard students didn’t “wait and see,” they launched a VERY PUBLIC campaign to trash this woman through innuendo and and rumor
Exactly. They got busy….busy trashing. And looking at Campbell’s Harvard record , you know the things we know she actully did, her achievements have been pretty impressive. I’m thinking she was seen by these other students as too successful…if you know what I mean.
PS…I have to feel that if she was guilty of something, she would be charged and in a jump suit. Why would the police hold back? It’s very odd.
Surely there’s someone out there that represents Harvard that can clearly clarify and release the info as to why she could not attend her graduation. If she passed her classes and had met the requirements then how could that occur? Perhaps she was not going to participate in the ceremony from the get go. I know plenty of people that have had this experience without any shadow of possible criminal activity hanging around.
What’s missing to me are her own words to defend or rebutt this position taken by Hardard. Or comments from her family or anyone that knows all the facts…not the feelings.
How is it that her mere knowing the people is a reason to keep her from graduating? If she was involved and charged that’s one thing, bbut mere guilt by association? Inane.
@Roslyn again, I’m not saying they should support her. Or criticizing them for not supporting her. The only reason I KNOW about this story is not only did they not support her, but they’ve gone on a very public campaign to explain their lack of support with a bunch of rumor mongering.
They didn’t just not support her, they wrote editorials and when on National Public Radio to distance themselves from ChaneQua.
Again, I know that there is more to this, if that’s the case, they should have just waited, but they didn’t the launched an active campaign against her.
Its a fine and minute distinction, but a distinction none the less.
“Roslyn again, I’m not saying they should support her.”
Oh, I’m not saying that you said that. I understand that you’re questioning the fact that people are calling what they did strategy when you believe it to actually be sexism and classism. And I agreed that you’re probably right.
I agree that this PR campaign is wrong-headed and I’m not sure what motivated it. I think it’s reasonable to want to distance yourself from a drug murder, but I think a simple ‘no comment’ would have had the same effect without adding fuel to the flame.
Why pick this opportunity to go silent?
I recall during my undergraduate days, a friend of mine attended a big white university and she told me that she was organizing a boycott of a local restaurant. I asked why. “Because they increased the price of the wing special to make sure black students can’t afford to go on Wednesday night.” Generally that’s all it takes for Black student groups on White campuses to march.
It’s for that reason the silence is so striking in this instance.
Now you’re going to go mute. You’re march to get someone tenure. You’ll write 5000 word editorials about a picture of a monkey being shot. You’re sponsor a van to Jena. You’ll blow the blogosphere up with a story of someone following you around a drugstore because you wanted to use an eco-friendly bag instead of a shopping cart (It’s because you’re black).
But when it comes down to something real they don’t shit to say?
That’s what I call leadership for the future.
Is this the promised land?
@Monica
I feel the same way (no sign of the apocalypse Gina odds are we’re bound to agree sometime).
I don’t think it’s wise to jumpstart a campaign in her favor until we see if she’s actually charged with anything, but this whole “rumor had it she’s a drug dealer” bit is BS.
The balck kids wasted no time in claiming she bought “the hood” to Harvard and other such nonsense.
They should have kept their traps shut to the media unless they had some hard proof of something and then cops or Harvard officials would have been the proper avenue) and let this thing play out.
@Roslyn
Classicism is rarely based on intrinsic values (are you nice, intelligent, decent person or other character traits) but on whose vagina you popped out of.
Where you born to the “right” family and participated in the “right” activities and was raised in the “right” neighborhood.
So being named Chenequa from Brooklyn automatically disqualifies you. Had she been one of their own this might be playing out a bit differently.
“Why pick this opportunity to go silent?”
They’re not silent, that’s my point. They ARE speaking out. If they were “silent” I wouldn’t have paid any attention to this case, but they aren’t “silent,” They are in their own underhanded little way speaking volumes and folks are patting them on the back for it.
“Had she been one of their own this might be playing out a bit differently.”
Do we know what percentage of black students at Harvard are ‘to the manor’ born, as it were, or are we assuming that the majority are ‘our kind of people?’ I don’t know anything about the Ivy League. I do know that they’re giving scholarships to disadvantaged students, so I would think that a fairly high percentage of the students there are similarly circumstanced to Ms. Campbell. If that’s the case, I could certainly see the well-to-do students maintaining radio silence, but if there’s an injustice being done to her, why would the other students, the ones who also from the block, so to speak, be complicit in this? If anything I’d think there’d be a schism along class lines. We see that all the time, typically there’s a fracture with resentment firing heavy and hot from both sides. Why is there none of that in this case?
@Roslyn Holcomb having spent three years with the products of the Ivy League, let me assure you that many of them ARE manor born and the ones that aren’t work really hard at making you THINK they are manor born.
There would be no schism along class lines if everybody was attempting to fit into the same class.
I suspect she didn’t have the option to move freely among the classes because of her name.
“Why would the other students, the ones who also from the block, so to speak, be complicit in this?”
I think they are covering they’re behinds. They already have their corporate chip embedded. “Don’t associate with a loser.” “Let the dead weight flow away.” “i’m not that kind of black.” “I’m from the ‘hood, not of the ‘hood.”
““i’m not that kind of black.”- You know that’s the Buppy Motto.
Dem ain’t MY kind of people! Thinking that this will only happen to the ‘Nequas of the world. Y’all have GOT to read this book I read in law school called “The Good Black”
Here is a blurb from Amazon:
“Here is the quintessential American success story: a young African American boy from an inner-city neighborhood makes good and goes to Harvard Law School, then on to a promising career in a prestigious law firm. In Paul M. Barrett’s unsettling The Good Black, however, the rags-to-riches formula goes terribly awry. Barrett’s subject is his former college roommate, Lawrence Mungin. As a child in the all-black Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, Mungin had learned at his mother’s knee that he was “a human being first, an American second, and a black third.” Hard work and good grades got him into Harvard. After several years as an associate at law firms in Atlanta and Houston, Mungin signed on with the Washington, D.C., firm of Katten Muchin & Zavis, hoping at last to achieve his dream of full partnership. What he got instead was the end of his career.
The facts of what happened to Lawrence Mungin are indisputable: demeaning work, insulting treatment, zero advancement; what is in question is why he was treated in such a way. When Mungin took his complaint to court, he claimed racial discrimination; Katten Muchin & Zavis didn’t deny their mistreatment but insisted that, far from being racially motivated, it was simply the way the firm treated all its employees. Barrett, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, chronicles Mungin’s life, his lawsuit, and the bitter aftermath of the trial in a book that raises more questions than it answers–questions about the American way of doing business that should trouble every American, white or black. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. “
I see it not anything personal against Chanequa (although, there is no way it cannot be personally against her) but an attempt to shore up a fragile position, accepted blacks have with whites. A throwing under the bus, if you will. The black students at Harvard who have launched a campaign against Chanequa are so afraid they will lose their status with whites. We all know how there are whites who will say, “Oh, I don’t see you as black.” The whites do this so they can still think ill of blacks as a class. The black students are capitalizing on the “I am not like those black people” i.e. Chanequa. And remaining silent is not good enough. To remain silent is possibly to convey to the white people that they approve of Chanequa’s alleged behavior. Therefore, to risk appearing as if they are approving of the Chanequas of the world, they throw her under the bus to prove that they don’t. It is classism. And I may add, a horrible case of internalized racism.
Oh, Gina, got at the same thing. We were crossposting, so I missed it.
Returning back to add related to the “class” issue. Its one thing to define “class” by how well you compete in Negro Geography (some of you who’ve played know of what I speak)… its a whole other thing to define class by the fact that Mama or Daddy got all the way to GS-14.
RIP BLACK AMERICA
http://charactercorner.blogspot.com/2009/06/rip-black-america.html
Proverbs 14:1 Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.
When I asked a Muslim brother why are muslim men so hard on the women, he stated that if the woman is immoral, then the nation will be immoral. Selah.
LOL @Negro Geography.
Yeah…went to high school with those kids. They were horrible….I remember the first day of high school I made friends with a chick in my class who invited me to sit at lunch with her and her friends (my first name is a very common, but still a “hood” name common among those born in 78/79/80/81) so I sat and was summarily IGNORED by everyone at the table.
I mean they completely IGNORED my very existence..it was like I was a ghost and they couldn’t see me…that was my first (though not the last) encounter i had with the manor set.
Oh lets not talk about the conversations that start with – what chapter of Jack and Jill did you belong to?
LOL.
SMH
@attorneymom
again, this isn’t about what she did or didn’t do, its about the mobilization addicts going out of their way to imply that there is any “strategic”reason for them not mobilizing on her behalf.
@ gem — you’re right.
They definitely shouldn’t have disparaged her. They should have kept quiet on all points. It’s gross to condemn someone without evidence, and if they did have evidence, it’s not a point in their favor that they’d spoke about it in an undisciplined way before the case was formally resolved.
“they had spoken”…my grammar is obviously taking a vacation
Here is another way of looking at this.. Can you recall a single instance in recent memory where an African American has alleged racism on the part of a large institution no matter how far fetched or baseless and had another group of Black people say…maybe not?
It doesn’t happen.
Here is another way of looking at this.. Can you recall a single instance in recent memory where an African American has alleged racism on the part of a large institution no matter how far fetched or baseless and had another group of Black people say…maybe not?
It doesn’t happen.
And perhaps that should be the point. It’s past time that it does happen. This has been one of the biggest problems for Blacks…and their “Black Community”.
Does R. Kelly ring a bell? Blacks blindly supporting other blacks is disgusting to watch, especially when it is evident to everyone else in the World that the person in question is a disgrace. It ends up reflecting poorly on all Black Americans, whether you supported the creep or not. White folks…and everyone else in America will only remember all the Blacks protesting and rallying in support of the child molester, thief, rapist, etc.
This case was blurbed over at my blog. And I thought it was great that the Black students didn’t do the typical Black Taliban routine of giving knee jerk support. They decided to think for themselves….
I say…wait until more information is provided…wait until investigations are concluded, wait until the evidence is in. This is something that Blacks and the Black Taliban leadership hates to do… instead…they like to ride the wave of the initial outrage (playing on the emotions of people) by holding rallies, having protests…etc… before they even know what the Hell is going on. The truth is…they usually don’t care about the facts. It’s all about taking advantage of those initial emotions… because for the Black Taliban (Civil Rights Inc. and the religion that is Black Culture) this is their bread and butter. It’s how they stay in business.
I say it’s great that these folks chose (at least for now) to break from tradition by not falling in line with the Black Taliban – which demands that they protest immediately and that they scream racism….before they even know what’s going on.
It’s amusing going through this echo chamber (although I think one person disagreed… kudos to them for having the courage to go against the Evil One).
I also think Roslyn went against the grain a bit as well… Rare for me to agree with Roslyn.
But those attacking the University and the Black students act as if they have all the details of the Police investigation. I am pretty sure that the local Police investigators have more information than what has been reported publicly….and they likely shared that information with the campus police staff and the University Administration.
It’s interesting that many of you are so against knee jerk support for Black males…. yet you are now advocating in favor of it here…or you are questioning why it was not offered to this student, as a way to frame the issue as a gender war thing (wth?).
The point should be… that this kind of knee jerk support shouldn’t be provided at all in the so-called Black Community…. regardless of gender, class, etc etc etc.
@ Angry Independent as usual loud belligerent and wrong. No one is attacking them for not supporting her. I am merely pointing out that these people ARE acting CONSISTENTLY with the previously established patterns of throwing Black women under the bus with relish while coddling Black men.
So for all of your bluster about new ground being broken, they are actually repeating the same old same old pattern.
I find it preposterous that you are calling this blog an echo chamber when we are the ONLY Black blog that I am aware of that has covered this issue from this angle.
So AI, I realize you are one of the henchmen of the Black Thought Police and whatnot, but we think freely and for ourselves here at WAOD. Stay classy!
“Black Thought Police?” I couldn’t possibly fit that role… as an independent…that couldn’t work…i’m seen by Blacks as too Conservative.
The Black Thought Police are the ones I rail against (Civil Rights Inc., etc). My point of view proves the opposite… showing that Black thought isn’t a monolith.
Think Freely here? Sometimes there is a diversity of opinion (otherwise I wouldn’t comment here); but other times… it seems like something different. It all depends on the topic. Of course…when the issue has something to do with gender… the verdict tends to be unanimous…. which shouldn’t be surprising. Sometimes even I agree (with caveats).
@AI actually your reply looked very much like something the thought police would post. Refusing to see any nuance, couching anyone who disagrees with you as evil, dismissive of dissenting opinions as an “echo chamber”.
Refusing to consider the role of gender in this scenario despite the fact that the title of this blog SCREAMS “gender, gender, gender.”
@ gem2001
“I am merely pointing out that these people ARE acting CONSISTENTLY with the previously established patterns of throwing Black women under the bus with relish while coddling Black men.”
I didn’t realize this was what you were saying…I’d misread your intent earlier. I don’t know if the situation would have been different here if Chanequa had been Charles. I’d really hope that the student groups’s self-interest would cover that case as well. I think that the lack of public grief about the murder victim shows that the student groups want to distance themselves of the whole issue. But that doesn’t address your point that Black women pay a higher price than the males.
I’m not sure how to untangle the combination of racism and sexism in a way that gives strategies to fix them. I think maybe having Black female leaders with the ability to be as public as the males (but without the self-serving behaviors of a Rev. Al.)
I’m not strongly church-affiliated, so I apologize if I’m speaking out of turn, but it seems like the one group of people that can afford to be vocal are the church leaders. If you’re in business or in industry, you’re dependent on people in a way that discourages you from speaking out too broadly — you can’t be someone’s CEO and be the voice of issues beyond your company. Academia is a little different, if you’ve got tenure. But if your discipline doesn’t match the issue, then you really have no more credibility than the average person.
But I think that Church leaders have the freedom, and the authority (they are expected to be knowledgeable about morality and the human condition.) So maybe more women in power here would make some real changes.
I don’t know that female church leadership is common though, given the attitudes of most religions regarding women, power and leadership.
Gina, bravo. Great post. I love it. I apologize for being late with my comment. I was too busy trying to help the Oakland police find a gang of heffas who decided to roll up on petite beautician and beat the crap out of her over some *&^%$.
Anyways, I have one question, Will Chanequa Campbell appear on the August cover of Essence magazine??
Longwinded again:
I think that just because people like Rev. Al get primetime doesn’t mean that most people think the same way. I didn’t see anyone around me supporting some of the other cases that were mentioned. When the Jena 6 were implicated, the issue people said was that the White students should be charged as well. I know my experience isn’t universal, but I don’t know many people who supported criminal behavior from Black males.
So I wonder if people like Rev. Al have hijacked the popular notion of who makes a worthy victim. These men have the ability to be in the public eye: they’re bombastic in a way that television cameras love.
But this can be taken back. I’m thinking of a similar discussion about how conservative, right wing Christianity became the recognized voice of Christianity. And even if you’re not that, these groups strongly set the definition of what other Christians think and do. There has been a lot of research/study into how this cultural shift took place, and I think that it’s worth reading, for the tactical information. Then we can extend this to our own agendas about race/sex …basically, if we’re losing the game, maybe we need to read the enemy’s playbook.
Off-hand, my second idea is to subvert that by using telegenic, media-quality people as spokespeople, and by utilizing free digital resources, like youtube and vlogs.
I think we need a library — some kind of central place for information on leadership, strategies, issues, media relations…something open source and free. Maybe like a Black women’s leadership collective or something.
@attorneymom I saw that and thought about posting on it, but passed. What would be the point. Lets please not refer to our sistren as “heffas” we’ll call them lost.
@anna you see the need for an organization. I see the need for an organization, probably 1000 other readers see the need for an organization. One small problem. I don’t want to run an organization. It would suck the very life out of me.
@gem2001
“One small problem. I don’t want to run an organization. It would suck the very life out of me.”
Stop reading my mind.
Seriously though, there are enough people with enough talents/resources that it could work. At least to take a crack at it.
Let’s start small. Possible first step: define the problem. IMO, the problem is a lack of a central repository for information so that people can educate/uplift themselves. I can say that there’s been a ton that I’ve learned even in the past few days, not because I was directly seeking, but because someone happened to be posting. Point being that interest isn’t proportional to exposure. But that’s just me, and I only speak for myself. Maybe the problem is lack of Black-female owned media. Either way there are some concrete issues that can be addressed.
Anyway — back to the first step. If each of the bloggers and posters gave this question some thought, say a few weeks, then we’d be able to go to step 2: suggest some solutions. Again, let everyone ponder for a couple weeks. Then step 3, identify the resources needed for the solutions. This is where we invest in ourselves: there are people with useful skills here.
By the time we’ve gotten down to who will do what, we’ve already narrowed the other parts down. We need to know what it means to organize something before we can say if we can do it or not. So by now, potential organizers can be better self-selected. The leader need not do this alone: there have to be models out there about how groups get started (with perhaps more limitations than what we now possess.)
We can at least make a commitment over about what we’d like to see change in the next 6 months. Say 3 months to plan, 3 months to do, and then go live in 2010. If we fail, then at least we went out swinging.
No, those were heffas. Anytime you beat a human being like that over a *&^%*, youza heffa. : – )
I was thinking the only time the activists came to a black womens defense was Tawana Brawley, the Duke stripper and for a short time Megan Williams
So I figure the only way the Chanequa would have gotten a public movement behind her was if she was being penalized letting a white drug dealing boyfriend in the dorm.
@anna well then you can be in charge of the First Annual WAOD Warrior woman conference Renegade Weekend.
Just let me know where I am supposed to be.
@gem2001,
I think that if you were with me, I’d be invincible.
Ok, here’s my stab at it — no laughter if this tanks (contact info linked above.)
Can you do this – help get the word out? I’m a commenter, not a blogger, but it’d be amazing if each Black female blogger could pick one issue, and consider a few concrete and doable solutions for the issue.
@attymom
I too saw the video of Melissa Seals being trapped in her own beauty salon and being abused like that. I was wondering if gina was going to post it as well. Just too disturbing to watch.
Nice to know that the Oakland PD is on top of the situation, before those chickens(Literallyu) migrate their way down to LA and go to the beauty shop I visit hehe.
@ LD, I think what made the most angry is that there are more ****(I would call them something else but I am being nice) out there who think and act just like them.
For those of you who don’t know what the hecke we are talking about, go to the following link:
http://charactercorner.blogspot.com/2009/06/oakland-salon-attack.html
Note from the blog administrator, I’m serious, please stop referring to these women as “heffas” on my blog. You might as well be calling them b*tches. Call them violent thugs or criminals, but let’s leave the animal references to other spaces, especially in a week where fols are referring to our First Lady as a gorilla.
@ Gina, okay. Those punkazz b&^%$*s better be locked up by now.
NOTE FROM THE BLOG ADMINISTRATOR; It would really hurt my heart to put someone on the comment blacklist, but I will do it. We ain’t calling Black women animal names on this blog. PERIOD!!!!
My apologies Gina. I didn’t mean to come into your home and offend anyone. A better choice of word would be “thugettes”, if that makes any since.
Attorneymom is about to get banned from WOAD. WTH?? LOL
The more things change, the more they remain the same. Something like this happened on my college campus (not an Ivy) 30 years ago.
First time reader and if this post is an indication of your others – great!!! I have often wondered why Black folks support people like OJ, Vick, Marion Berry, etc, T.I., etc. Also this is the first time I have heard of this incident. I know we down here in the lone star state are behind, but was it a national story? I haven’t tuned into the regular media as much lately. I love your recommendation of getting a preacha as her spokesman instead of a lawya – outstanding.
Good post, Gina.
I vote for you to blacklist/ban attorneymom and anyone else who refers to Black women with any sort of name-calling.
Feeling sorry for them only exacerbates the problem, as is evident above.
You have a solid readership and probably wouldn’t lose one reader over it. Those are voices we don’t need to hear.
Keep up the FANTASTIC work!
Gina, I have one possible solution. I wrote it in my last post called BF and the Talmud. Basically, I think it may be helpful to have a book compilation of “teachings” by tried and true leaders (MLK, Malcolm X, Sojourner Truth, etc etc) compiled by subjects (education, health, politics, music, white folks, etc) then we can mull over what they said and why; and why its good and why it wasn’t wise, what was their motivation, etc.
(A bit like a “talmud” but not)
Great for analytical thinking practice, learning about the leaders, realizing the storehouse of wisdom out there, etc.
Just putting it out there for anyone (not necessarily you, Gina)
Gina, out of respect for you and your readership, I will not write what I am thinking about Jcy’s comment. She or he is not worth my energy.
Sidebar: I guess my name calling is much more evil than the beating of a defenseless pregnant Black Queen by a group of Black Princesses.
Now back to the topic at hand.
Jcy, I dedicated a song to you on my blog. Have a nice day. : – )
http://charactercorner.blogspot.com/2009/06/sidebar-diss-of-day.html
I am going off topic again.
Just to let you know that two of the Black Princesses called into the radio station to brag about the attack.
From abclocal.go.com
Two women who claim to have carried out the beating called into radio station KMEL last week.
Sana G (KMEL DJ): “Which one was the one doing the karate kicks to the face? Was that you?”
Caller #1: “Right here, this my sister.”
Caller #2: “… that was me, man. That b—- deserved everything they got, that she got. And if you would have been there and on the situation, you would have respected it.”
The women told KMEL they went after Seals because she had discussed their sexual activity with their parents and other clients of the salon.
Caller #1: “Yeah, maybe we’re wrong for going about it the way that we did, but she deserved every bit of that for the sh– she talked about. When you’re mad you react differently, when you’re mad, and we handled it maybe the wrong way. But we’re glad we did it because she — she exploited our business to her clients.”
“It’s not about me no more. I just want them to not do this to nobody else,” said Seals.
KMEL DJ: “What kind of trouble are y’all in right now?”
Caller #2: “None.”
Caller #1: “None at all. None at all. We didn’t kill the girl.”
They may not be in trouble at this point, but Oakland Police want anyone with information about the attack to call the OPD Assault Section at (510) 238-3426.
Like seriously let. it. go. People.
‘The institutions within the Black community don’t require that the recipient of their mobilization have any moral authority. They don’t require that you are free from guilt. All that they require is a Y chromosome and potential for camera time.”
________
EXCELLENT and so true.
Thanks for your thoughts on this story. It clarified things for me and showed me a different spin on it.
I feel for Ms. Campbell and we don’t know all the legal facts but I think this case illustrates a problem with young black people. In today’s black world being black means being hard, gangsta, ghetto, pimped out. Young men who act like this have swagga. The guys who study and don’t where sagging pants and gold chains don’t have swagga. And these stereotypes affect who the young ladies are attracted to–be they in the hood or at Harvard. I have preteen and teen children and treat many teens and young adults –this is what I see. Young girls from stable black working and middle class families getting involved with true thugs.
I think we black mothers need to talk early to our girls not just about school and job goals but also about attraction, sexuality, and the consequenses of their life choices.